UK Political weblog

Archive for the category “capital punishment”

Here we go again ‘wear your poppy with pride, remember, lest we forget’ and other such jingoistic entreaties. Out trot the masses to chuck a few coins in a tin, pin on the poppy replica and walk away thinking ‘I’ve done my bit’ when actually they are just another sheep running with the flock. The Remembrance Sunday do in London will be carried out with all solemnity and pageantry choreographed to perfection as it is every year and few will notice that it represents in microcosm the conducts of the wars they pretend to remember. The massed ranks of military personnel, past and present (& don’t miss the Chelsea Pensioners,”Arh bless ’em” brought in for a bit of colour and to tug at the patriotic heartstrings) who will stand for hours, perform their attentions and marching on cue whether they are freezing cold or soaking wet before finally getting get a mug of hot tea and making their journey back in the following hours. Meanwhile the royals, the politicians, the military top brass will arrive just in time to perform their wreath laying with sad solemn faces before walking stiffly away to their clubs, offices, pubs, for a double Scotch and a warm up to discuss the Sunday papers or, in the case of the royals to wave briefly at the adoring crowds from a balcony at Buckingham Palace.

So it is with all wars, rich men sending young men out to die protecting their wealth.

If we’re going to remember let us remember what we know from history, not the myth of our lads going bravely over the top for king and country but that the choice they had was go over when the whistle blew to take a chance on survival or the certainty that if they didn’t obey their own officers would shoot them there and then or have them taken away for a perfunctory court martial and shot at dawn by their mates who, if they didn’t, would be shot themselves. I would argue the really brave ones were those said they will not kill, the conscientious objectors, who suffered terribly for their stand. Let us recall too that the UK, France and the USA following the end of WW1 stole the resources of Germany, the iron, steel and coal leaving the German people destitute and starving that soon paved the way for the rise of Hitler, Nazism and WW2.

Coming more up to date let us remember the war against Iraq to seize back control of the oil fields to feed the greed of the richest in the West. Let us remember the war in Afghanistan yet another war for greed and a natural gas pipeline running from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and so bypassing Russia. Can’t have a pipeline that the Taliban would be likely to blow up!

Let us also be aware that we are one of the evil nations of the World that supply weapons for others to kill millions just for the rich man’s profit.

Whenever there is a war there is no problem finding Billions of Pounds to fight it, there is no problem finding Billions to prepare for the next war, because there always is one, war is profitable, so there should be no problem in finding the money to care for those who are damaged in fighting those wars. The only problem is that the rich men, the faceless corporations who benefit, want the people to fight for them, to die for them on the cheap.

What do you think of about Japan? Amazing electronic gadgets, Toyota cars, Geisha girls, the Bullet Train, incredible gardens? Perhaps if you read history or are old enough to recall WW2 you will shudder at the thought of the immense cruelty of the Imperial Japanese army to those that it captured or conquered.

This cruel mindset, it seems, lives on in it’s criminal justice system. Executions by hanging still take place and it is literally minutes or at best only hours before it is carried out, are the condemned informed. Before this they are kept in a cell little bigger than a toilet for many years where they are forced to sit and not allowed to even exercise in this cell. Two times a week, three in summer, they are taken outside to exercise. Prevented from communicating with other prisoners it is little wonder that many of them become insane before execution. Even those who were insane at the time of the crime are executed.

Japan’s conviction rate exceeds 99% so it is obvious that many innocent people are found guilty and killed by the State. Confessions are known to be extracted from suspects by the police using what could be classed as torture.

Japan may have been defeated in the war but it was rebuilt by the United States, another nation that still in many States kills people to show that killing people is wrong.

This country just seems to go from bad to worse particularly when it comes to human rights. It is such a shame when we used to be known for fair play, respect for the individual and for minorities and for observing the rule of law.

Today, despite a ruling to the contrary by the European Court of Human Rights the Government is to hand over two suspects (Mr Al-Saadoon and Mr Mufdhi) of the killing of two British servicemen in Iraq to the Iraqi police. Fair enough so far BUT if found guilty then they could be sentenced to death.

Since we in the UK abolished the death penaly and rightly so, we have refused handing over for trial anyone who if found guilty could be sentenced to execution. In addition, in this particular case the Government is ignoring the Human Rights Court which we ascribe to. How much lower can we sink?

For a so called ‘civilised’ nation the United States still continues with the barbaric practice of capital punishment which is a euphamism for killing people.

Jose Medellin, 33, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for admitedly a foul crime commited 15 years ago. The International Court of Justice backed up by Ban Ki-moon the UN Secretary General, requested the US to put a hold on his and another 50 executions as there should be new hearings to determine whether the Vienna Conventions were violated during their arrests.

Jorge Montano, a former Mexican ambassador to the US, said that the US should respect international law.

“The biggest lesson once again for the rest of the world, the US is not prepared to respect any ruling when that ruling is not in their favour and that, for me, is like the law of the jungle once again. If we don’t respect the international legislation, then how can we ask other countries to do so?”